The Jumper Chronicles: Between Dreams
by Johnas Armitage
Summary: His life is a journey between worlds, led by something he does not understand. The people and places shape him, fill his mind and soul, but what of the moments between worlds? How many visions are in the mist of his mind, how many has he forgotten?


"You'll never get away with this."

The teenager snorted, "Isn't that usually something someone else says to you?" He kicked the aged scientist in the backside, sending him to the rubble strewn ground. The older man's right arm sprayed sparks as it collided with the rocks, the stones gouging the metal exterior of his cybernetic arm. "Now get going, Doctor Arkburg."

"That's Arkeville!" The old man spun, fuming and spitting with rage as he moved to pounce on his captor.

The young man smiled as the scientist jabbed his nose into the barrel of the gun on his right arm. "I don't care. Now get moving. You said it was nearby."

The scientist swallowed thickly, staring in fear at the impressive chain gun that emerged from his enemy's sleeve. It was how he had ended up in this position originally; Starscream had brought in another round of Autobot prisoners, including an unconscious teenager with mechanical limbs and organs far advanced of anything that the Decepticon-aligned scientist had ever seen. Hooking it up to a machine to analyze it, the arm had hijacked the systems, plunging his lab into darkness. The return of the lights had brought the stranger, awake, into Arkeville's face, his arm changing into a wicked looking energy sword that was a mere hair's width from the scientist's throat. "You have signed your death warrant with this act of insurgency, boy." Arkeville's manic laughter echoed across the piles of junk.

Jabbing the gun in the mad scientist's face, the boy smirked. "Move."

Leading him deeper into the mechanical graveyard, Arkeville chuckled. "Tell me your name, boy. When they kill you for this, and I harvest your cybernetics, I want to know who to thank for the advancement."

"Shut up." His captor dropped off, eyes drifting across the scene. "I think we're here."

"Ah yes, here he is." Arkeville smiled fondly at the sight before him. The massive robot was sprawled where they had tossed him, his massive metal corpse lying prone atop a mountain of refuse, limbs splayed out in limp resignation.

Stepping past Arkeville, the red-haired teen climbed up onto the leg and started his long journey up. The dark blue metal was smooth, with a few easy purchases, allowing him to make his way up to the torso, where the damage had been done. Looking as if it had been built out of parts from a semi-truck manufacturing facility, the huge robot still held a rifle clutched in its thick fingers, its dark blue optics dim and lifeless. "Amazing; a robot from an alien world . . ." His eyes drifted up the body to the massive hole through his chest, "Jesus, it looks like you drove a truck through him."

"Such is the power of my lord, Megatron." Arkeville thrust a closed fist toward his escort. "The Autobots are no match for the Decepticons, now that they have my ultimate weapon, the Spark Smasher. It is powerful enough to topple even the most mighty of foes, as you can plainly see."

"Most impressive," he gently touched an exposed lead, feeling the weak flicker of energy that responded to the many alien devices that sustained his own fleeting life. Regret hung over that moment of contact with omnipresent misery, the barest whisper of a howl that raged on the other side of life and death. "And what will your lord Megatron do, now that his enemy is vanquished?"

"Enslave the world's population and make them harness the Earth's energies to make energon cubes; once there are enough of them, Megatron will return to their home planet of Cybertron to conquer that world as well, leaving me as the unchallenged King of the Earth."

"I see," he lowered himself into the opening in the robot's chest. "I can't let you do that, Doctor. Nothing personal, I'm just not about to let you foul up a perfectly good planet because you got picked on for wearing an ugly metal yarmulke." The exposed wires and power lines hungrily reached out to him, and when he touched them, leads and connections sprouted from his flesh, encompassing the bare ends within the mortal wound.

"What are you doing?" Arkeville scrambled to climb the hill, "Get away from that! There's nothing you can do!" A shudder trembled through the ground, sending Arkeville tumbling back to the ground at the mound's basin. The man screamed in utter horror as one hand reached out, then the other, and together they pushed the leviathan mechanoid to its feet. Eyes blazing with righteous blue fury, the once dead Autobot towered over the half-metal mad scientist. "It's not possible! IT ISN'T POSSIBLE!"

Surrounded by the blinding blue light that filled the wound in the mech's chest, the boy laughed aloud, "You'd be surprised how often I prove people wrong about that sort of thing."

"Doctor . . . Arkeville?" The Autobot's voice rumbled loudly in the empty junkyard, "I don't often see the dog far from his master's heels. What are you doing here?"

"You can't be functional! It's impossible! I have to tell Megatron!" Arkeville spun on his heel and fled, running as hard as his weary body could.

"Now that, I can't let happen." The teenager smirked. Prime's arm lashed out, toppling a massive pile of refuse. The mad scientist cried out in surprise as thousands of pounds of garbage spilled down on him in a decomposing avalanche, burying him in human waste.

"What? My arm is acting on its own!" The massive truck-inspired Autobot reeled, flexing his arm in surprise, "What caused that?"

"That was me," a voice called out from somewhere unseen, and nearby. "I apologize for hijacking you, but Arkeville would only make our situation all the more severe."

Navigating through the mounds of refuse, the Autobot lifted a broken mirror, optics glowing even more brightly at the shock of seeing the hole in his chest. Within that ragged wound, cocooned in scintillating blue light and kudzu-like wires, a human peered out with an awkward smile. "What are you doing inside me? Who are you?"

"Just a traveler," The teen chuckled, "As for what I am doing in here, think of me as a battery. You were dead, or inactive, whatever you want to call it. When I touched the wires, I felt your sorrow, your regret; I felt the last things you did, and I realized that bad things would happen if you were left to die like that. So I cheated death, wiring myself into you."

"What you've explained is impossible."

"I'm about seventy-five percent organic machine; I've had to accept that, sometimes, the impossible is slightly less than that."

The robot bowed his head in reflection. ". . . It would seem I owe you much gratitude. I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots."

"Benjamin Bradt," he smiled, "I'd shake your hand, but I am apparently somewhat inside of it."

Discarding the mirror, Optimus used his sensors to locate the nearest source of energon; once it was determined, he began cautiously making his way through the maze of detritus. "What can you tell me about the current situation?"

"The other Autobots are being rounded up in a disused strip mine channel near here. They plan to use Arkeville's super weapon to blast them into the mine, then to entomb them."

"Not one of Megatron's more imaginative plans, I have to say." Prime ducked behind some equipment, allowing a Decepticon sentry to pass by. He reached into the link that Ben had unintentionally created between them, _Once we get outside of this reclamation facility, we will return to the Ark and undergo the repairs necessary to extricate you. I won't put you in danger of being injured, Benjamin; we'll just have to trust that my brother's enjoyment of gloating will buy us sufficient time t-_

_The hell you will, Prime!_ Ben interrupted the Cybertronian, _Your people need help faster than that. The last thing you have time to do is play it safe on my account; we are going to free your allies, and whatever happens beyond that, is just that. Now, I can make us do that, or you can help me out._

"It appears we are at an impasse." The Autobot brought his rifle up like an expert soldier, drawing a bead down on the sentry who had just passed them, "I suppose it wouldn't do us any good to leave him free to find out that I've gone missing, would it?" The rifle's blast left its barrel in a flicker of blue light, striking the Decepticon guard in the neck; his head launched nearly ten feet into the air above his shoulders as his body collapsed, before dropping to the earth with a thud.

Ben whistled appreciatively, "That was a hell of a shot, Prime."

"An old friend of mine once said, 'That I do not thirst for battle, does not mean I don't know how to handle the drink'. I found the statement very appropriate." The Autobot leader cradled the gun and continued along.

"I always preferred 'I have come to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I am all out of bubble gum'," Ben's nanites spread out, sealing the ragged hole in Prime's chest and entombing him within the robot's body, "But then again I've never been good with subtlety."

* * *

"Oh how the mighty have fallen," Megatron's voice boomed across the walls of the empty chasm where the Autobots had been gathered. "Once so proud, so drunk on your own pride; now look at you, miserable, broken. Defeated." He clasped his hands as he grinned broadly, "What a delightful sight to see. It's just how I always wanted to remember you all."

"Indeed so, oh Mighty Ruler," Starscream's simpering praise was blithely absorbed by the egotistical Megatron as the seeker examined Dr. Arkeville's super weapon. The Spark Crusher, as it was called, was the perfect device for fighting any Cybertronian; it's powerful energy blast would not only shred metal, but it dispersed energy, disrupting it. It would wreak horrible damage on any opponent it was turned on, but against a living machine it would disrupt and extinguish the spark, destroying the very soul of its mechanical target. "With this weapon, all of the universe will tremble before the might of the Decepticon ruler."

"Affirmative." Soundwave's inhuman voice came from somewhere too close for Starscream's comfort, and as he looked up, he found Megatron's most loyal lapdog guarding the Spark Crusher's firing mechanism.

_How typical_, the seeker mused silently.

"You just go ahead and gloat, Lame-a-tron," One of the Autobots, a red sports coupe, yelled from the stone flow below. "When Prime gets here, he's going to turn you into hubcaps." The other assembled Cybertronians rumbled a tangled series of agreements.

"Ah yes, hope, the last bastion of the damned." Megatron smirked delightedly, "I suppose you could invest your pitiful hope in that notion. But it would do you well to spend your time pleading for my mercy."

"Your valiant leader is DEAD!" Starscream shouted the words out before Megatron could continue his cryptic melodrama. "I shot him with this mighty weapon myself, and watched him die. Such will be the fate of any who fail to see that I, Starscream, am the destined ruler of the Decepticons!"

Shouts of denial erupted from the Autobot prisoners, echoed by the angry cries of the Decepticon horde over Starscream's proclamation; those who allied themselves with the seeker announced his superiority while those who supported Megatron, or thought it wiser not to publicize their political orientations, rallied up in their leader's defense.

"Starscream should rule!"

"Starscream's a coward!"

"Megatron is the one true king!"

"Megatron should be decommissioned!"

"You arrogant little insect!" Megatron snarled and swiped at Starscream, trying to grab a hold of him, "You would attempt a coup at this time, when I have rallied our broken foes to be crushed under my feet?"

"More like under my heel!" Starscream narrowly avoided the attack, "The Decepticons need a new leader, one with vision and aspirations higher than ruling Cybertron!"

"What they need is a leader who doesn't snivel and whine like a protoform!" Megatron caught Starscream by the arm and drew him in close, clutching his throat with one heavy hand, "I will spare your insolence this time, only because I am still so happy to know that Optimus Prime is dead."

"Is that a fact?" A laser blast flickered down toward Megatron; he barely had time to use the would-be usurper as a living shield, sparing himself the blast as Starscream's back spewed smoke and fire. The small-framed seeker howled and whimpered in pain as his leader cast him aside.

"Who dares?" Megatron looked up at his attacker, suppressing the impulsive desire to run diagnostic checks on his optics. "Prime? Not possible, I saw you deactivated."

Prime sighted down the barrel and squeezed off another shot. "I believe the human colloquialism is 'The rumors of my deactivation are greatly exaggerated'." The second shot hit the Spark Crusher; Soundwave threw his arms up as the control console exploded, blowing him out of the seat and over the side of the mine's ledge. The large blue Decepticon howled as he plunged into the depths of the adjacent uranium quarry, flooded with decades of rain and ground water seepage.

"Decepticons, annihilate him!" A hailstorm of purple laser fire exploded up the hillside. Prime continued to fire, the shots whizzing past, a few of them grazing across his armored frame.

_You're getting hammered out there, Prime,_ Ben's voice echoed through their connection, _How much damage are you sustaining?_

_My body is armored for war; the damage will not impair my functionality so long as I keep it to a minimum._ The Autobot's voice was omnipresent and calm, a strong baritone.

_Well then, I think it's time I pitch in._ The air around Optimus' body shimmered slightly, and the Decepticon's energy blasts began to shift and bend away from their target, deflected by a bubble of blue light that crackled to life around the prime.

"Plasma shielding? How are you doing this?" Optimus fired off a few more rounds, sending a few of the more heavily armed Decepticons tumbling into the pit with the Autobots; relieved of their weapons, a counter attack surged upward, prisoners scrambling up the sides of the mine as their comrades laid down cover fire.

_I'm seventy-five percent organic machinery, _Ben said with a pleasant chuckle, _before I was ambulatory I wrote weapon programs for AI's to use in virtual combat. Once you work out the formulas to create an electromagnetic helix, the only difference between virtual plasma and material plasma is the amount of energy required to create a stable reaction. _

"My engineers would love to talk shop with you, once this is all resolved." Prime took cover behind a stone shelf, the plasma bubble dissipating.

_Just wait until I really get started._

"It was a nice trick you did there, with the shield, little brother." Megatron stepped out from the adjacent alcove, his arm cannon primed, "But it will take more than that to stop this."

The massive gun flared, shattering the energy field and catching Prime in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Even without looking, Prime could tell by the sparks and flaring light that exploded from his chest that it was a serious wound. Worse still, his human ally had been ensconced within an area now exposed to the air. _Ben, can you hear me?_ Prime reached out with his mind, searching for some semblance of the human's will, but their connection had been shattered.

Megatron sneered in disgust as he stepped toward the fallen Autobot. "Really, Prime, a human in your core alcove; it'll take forever to clean out the mess." He degenerated into raucous laughter.

Prime's anger swelled, but it was a cool touch of the human's mind that stopped him from roaring at Megatron. "Prime . . . it's okay, it's time for me to go." Optimus felt his hand twitch of its own accord, "Just let me say goodbye to your friend." Ben groaned with pain as he pulled himself up from the wound in Prime's chest. Many of the wire leads still dug into his flesh. "Megatron, was it? I have to say, you're quite the piece of shit."

Megatron stooped over, glaring down at the battered human with luminous red eyes. "What a curious specimen, organic matter blended with integrated machinery, are you one of Arkeville's specimens?"

Ben snorted, "Hardly, I left that imbecile buried under a hundred tons of excrement and trash. It's better than either of you deserve."

The Decepticon leader brought his gun to bear, "You've exhausted my patience, fleshling, any final words?"

"Three words; Crush Cannon!" Prime's left hand lashed forward, knocking Megatron's gun aside as his right grabbed the gray mech by the collar and pulled him close, "Fire." The Autobot's fist glowed white hot.

"Impossible!" Megatron screamed as the powerful blast ate into his chest, propelling him upward in a terrific arc as he sailed through the air, arms and legs flailing erratically before he slammed into the bedrock cliffside, plunging into the uranium quarry with a muted splash.

The Autobot leader's arms fell to the ground, his control returned. Ben turned and smiled weakly to the large robot, "I guess you win, huh?" Smoke began to pour from his wounds as he collapsed onto Prime's chest, "Couldn't have . . . happened to a . . . more . . . deserving . . . bot."

Prime reached up to cradle Ben's form in his hand, but the human was gone, vanished into the strange smoke that had spilled forth from him only seconds before.


End file.
